I finally ripped out the sad Hibiscus. It had a ton of roots, going all the way to the bottom of the pot. I had to cut it out with the Hori Hori knife, and I ended up leaving a decent amount in there. The main reason for dealing with it (as opposed to just leaving it there) was to reclaim the pot for the Jalapeno.
The Jalapeno plant (the original one) was getting too big for its pot. It had a ton of branches going out laterally, and a tall, thin stem at the bottom, so it was kind of toppling over. At one point, it had bean vine looping all over it, which may have thrown of the shape. Also would have limited the sun a little.
So I potted it up in the Hibiscus container, and I tried to plant it a lot deeper. Then I filled around and over top with the regular garden-waste compost. That actually used up quite a lot. Now it looks a little bit more stable, and I think the location will be more favorable. That's the spot that gets the absolute most sun. I just need to make sure I water it soon.
I dumped a generous amount of compost on to the Morning Glory containers as well. Then I put what little was left onto the Habenero plant just cause. So now that's all used up.
The compost in the spinner actually seems like it's still doing something; it's got a lot of heat coming off of it. I wanted to take it out and finish sifting it and then be able to start over with the other crap. I'm hoping that the trash bin full of stuff will actually all fit in the spinner. And I've got like, a gallon of coffee grounds that I want to work in there. I'm really hoping that I can get that started soon. I mean, if I can get it started by end of July/ beginning of August, then it would have 2 months to cook over August and September. If it's just the right mix and if it starts in the summer when it's warm, maybe it will be done by mid October? I'm shooting for that because I want to be able to empty it out, and refill it with the leaves coming down then. And I'm going to throw in lots of the worm compost, along with the worms, in the hopes that they'll get it going even faster,
I might want to try to harvest some Worm Castings soon. I mean, I don't really have a plan for it. I've got the 4th tray on there, and before too long it's going to be filled. And if that does happen, I'll need to empty out one of the bins so that I can add it to the top. In addition, I'm kind of thinking I want to have another kind of layer on the bottom, something that keeps the compost and the worms in the bin and not in the drip tray. That's where all the good stuff is. Maybe just a fine screen, or hardware cloth? When you start, you put in thick brown paper, but obviously that breaks down and as you harvest, you keep putting an already-full tray on the bottom.
Of course, I could buy more trays, 2 for $20.
I transplanted the little Rosemary plants- I had them in small containers but I was pretty lax about watering. I've now got them in one of the longer 24" containers. At least it won't dry out as fast,
I'm pretty disgusted with the Nasturtiums in the Gutter Garden. I'm probably going to rip them out soon. In August, I can direct-seed some lettuce, and I can get some nice lettuce off of that over the fall.
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